Bloodbowl and Dark Elves

First two members of my BB team.






Also quick and easy Crossbow Elves.

In space, no one can hear you paint yellow badly

You know what?
Yellow armies are awesome.

Bad Moons. Craftworld Iyanden. Imperial Fists. Marines Malevolent have a cool scheme. I have a soft spot for Lamenters, too. You have to love any force who's history is comprised entirely of horrible things that have happened to them.
I'm a big fan of the BA codex, and their figures (Space Hulk too), but I'm not in love with the chapter enough to really want to paint any. None of their successor chapters do it for me either. Except the Lamenters!
I've never painted yellow before, so here's my first attempt.
Work in progress, obviously.



I've been working on this Raven Guard guy too. I won't tell you when I started him though, it's embarrassing.


Finally, some progress on the first of my Blood Bowl team. I think I'm going to do the outside of his cloak white.

I've not been very productive lately. No reason in particular, but bouncing between so many different projects doesn't help.
Here's a few things on my desk i'm working on at the moment.


Chaos Blood Angel Counts As Assault Marine Sgt, or Raptor Champion, depending on what mood i'm in.

Gene Priest got some paint as well. I think the white might need a few more coats still.


I've also started on a bloodbowl team! Not terribly exciting, just a chaos warrior with the weapons hacked off. Going for a tzeentch themed team, so blues as opposed to my usual love affair with purple. Yes, I know, it's a massive change.


At last, a sure fire method of speed painting 10 dudes at once!

Welcome to a kind of amalgamation post that was written in various places over various weeks!

I've mentioned previously my work on the "counts as" blood angels.
Well, while this originally started as "make an Emperor's Children army using the BA codex", it's slowly turned into "make a new army using the BA codex that just so happens to share a bunch of miniatures with my EC".
So, I worked up the background in the previous post. If I have a lose alliance of chaos baddy types, each with his own style/tactics but likely to send allies and such to help the others, well, that seems like justification enough to run different codex lists but with the same basic troopers and vehicles showing up.

Anyway, I'm putting together the forces of Nam'Tar, the Fleshcrafter, mad doctor and warped genetic scientist. I'll be using the blood angels book, with sanguinary priests as his gene-priest apprentices, and death company as the weird mutant hybrids he creates. Nam'Tar himself will be a librarian, or maybe mephiston, depending on how many combat drugs he pumps into himself!

Here's the first draft of my list:

Nam'Tar, the Fleshcrafter
(Librarian, Jump Pack, Blood Lance and Unleash Rage powers)

Gene Priest
(1 Sanguinary Priest, Jump Pack, Power Weapon)

Tactical Squad
(10 Marines, Meltagun, Missile Launcher, Power Fist, Rhino)

Assault Squad
(10 Marines, 2 Flamers, Fist)

Assault Squad
(10 Marines, 2 Meltas, Power Sword)

Batch 001
(8 Death Company, 2 with Power Weapons, 2 with Power Fists, in a rhino)

Baal

Vindicator

1500 exactly

I tried it out for the first time tonight. Here's what critics had to say about the battle. Wait, no, it's just me again.

Played my first game with the BA codex against Necrons. Annihilation/Dawn of War. I went second and held everything in reserve. My 2 assault squads (with Librarian and Priest attached) would deep strike, my Baal would outflank, and the 2 rhinos and vindicator would rely on being fast to get them into the action.
All of the Necrons were in play when my forces began arriving, with 2 large units of warriors in the back right of the field, the monolith smashing down in the centre, and the various destroyers kind of hovering about the middle. I decided to focus my attack via the left flank, hopefully cutting down the small destroyer units first for easy kill points (well, easier than wading through hordes of warriors at least).
The rest of my forces that arrived a little later (Death Company and Vindicator) moved up the right flank as the remains of my initial attack wheeled around the monolith, forming a pincer movement against the warrior blocks.
The main brunt of my attack had been halted by a Destroyer Lord charging the Assault Squad with Priest, tying them up long enough to pop my bubble of Furious Charge/Feel No Pain, but I still did pretty well, the game ending with a draw, 5 KP each.
Here are some things I learnt from the game:

1) Blood Lance wasn't as good as I thought, but it'd probably be better against non-Necrons.

2) Unleash Rage (gives the librarian and the unit he's with Preferred enemy, i.e. can re-roll misses) is excellent!

3) Death Company are great. They ripped through everything they got into combat with, and feel no pain kept them alive throughout it all. I had wondered if 8 was too many, but I think it's enough that I can lose 1 or 2 and still be able to eat up most anything I charge.

4) Vindicator, as is usual for the thing, turned up late and didn't kill much. I still love it though!

5) This army is fast. Most of my army started on the left side of the battle, but I pretty comfortable made it to the opposite corner to dish out some slaaneshi fury.

6) Tactical Squad kind of sucked. I brought them on in the wrong place, so they spent most of the game driving around the board (really fast) not doing much. Tempting to swap them out for a 3rd assault squad, but I think the bolters would be pretty useful against CC heavy armies. I also don't want to specialise too much. We'll see.

Right, enough of all that jabbering. Picture time!

Started work on my Vindicator, finally!



Also a work in progress shot of Nam'Tar himself. He's actually just about ready for paint right now, but no pictures just yet.


His arms. The chainsword/narthecium is imposing enough to work as a force weapon, I hope. I also worked up a needle pistol.


Did I post any pictures here of my colour scheme for these guys? No? Here we go. Not too sure about the black being highlighted up to purple, I may just go back to straight grey.


Finally, a Gene-Priest. I've added a kind of robe/skirt of flayed skin around his legs using greenstuff since this picture.

The Six Mouths

“When it begins, you will hear the sound of children screaming – as though from a great distance. A smoking orb of nothing will grow above your bed, and from it will emerge a thousand starving crows. As I slip through the widening maw in my new form, you will catch only a glimpse of my radiance before you are incinerated. Then, as tears of bubbling pitch stream down my face, my dark work will begin.
I will open one of my six mouths, and I will sing the song that ends the Earth.”


++++++
Thought for the day: Death is the servant of the righteous.
++++++
Access Inquisitorial Files: Heretic Group designate 18a996
Access Security Level: Granted
...accessing...
Consolidating all information files re:six_mouths
...working...
...complete
++++++

Welcome, Inquisitor.

As requested, please find summarised all available information we have accumulated regarding the Renegade Alliance known as The Six Mouths.


The Six Mouths are a lose group of renegades and traitors, primarily thought to operate around this sub-sector, but we suspect they may have operations in progress all over the galaxy. Be vigilant! The group is comprised of several powerful individuals. Space Marine renegades and traitors, they are in the service of one or more of the Ruinous Powers, and daemonic influence should not be discounted. They have rarely, if ever, openly worked alongside each other, and it is for this reason that information on the group as a whole is patchy and incomplete. They do, however, seem to exchange troops, information and supplies readily, and it is through these common elements that we have begun to track the group.

The First Voice: Raffaello Kabrou, The Silvered Blade.
Arrogant and proud even by the standards of those who have turned from the light of the Emperor. Boastful of his martial prowess. Has apparently launched several raids on well defended planets in order to seek out and duel those he deems “worthy”. In the thrall of Slaanesh, his forces employ sonic weaponry. Recent encounters with several of our psychically active agents suggests the weapon he wields contains the bound essence of the Deamonic entity known as Kura'vitch. Inquisitor Yassir [[cross ref Ordo_Malleus]] reported destroying this demon approximately 20 years previous. Suggest contacting Yassir, although the Inquisitor's current location is unknown.

The Second Voice: [[file corrupted]], The Sorcerer
Sorcerer of the Tzeentch, appears to be a member of the Thousand Sons legion. Struck a deal with Kabrou, and supplies him with troops, specifically Rubric Marines[[cross ref Ahriman]]. Unknown what the other end of the deal entails.

The Third Voice: ??

The Forth Voice: ??

The Fifth Voice: Nam'Tar, The Fleshcrafter
Renegade Gene-Scientist of the outer reaches. Holder of a great deal of forbidden lore, has a particular interest in the holy Gene Seed of fallen Astartes. Performs various modifications upon his troops, and even himself. [[more information needed]]

The Sixth Voice: ???

3rd, 4th and 6th Voices are at this stage unknown. Do not rule out allegiances to the other Chaos Powers, or even xenos involvement. Proceed with caution.

++++++

Painting updates!

So, it's been a while since I've posted any pictures. I've not, however, been completely lazy in all this time.

First off, here are some Ultramarines I painted on commission. Quick and dirty, but not too bad I think. Painting clean, bright blue is good fun!




I've also been chipping away at the Iron Hands. Here's their vehicle pool all grouped up together.


The main new features here are an updated Brother Scaeva, and a completed land raider, the Purity of Hatred. I took the opportunity to get some nicer pictures of Brother Verne as well. I discovered the window ledge in the back bedroom is a pretty good spot for getting pictures. Hopefully this will see an end to my horrible yellow tinted photography.

A Brief History of Chaos

or, how I learned to stop worrying and start worshipping Slaanesh

Aside from Orks, the faction I've played the longest in 40k is Chaos. It started back with the 2rd edition Chaos Codex, a massive beast of a book; If you could not best your opponent on the tabletop, a blow to the head from this book would surely grant victory. Perhaps my memory has embiggened it just a touch, but it certainly captured my imagination. My chaos army was a renegade chapter named the Warp Falcons, lovely purple fellows, and they had units aligned to each of the chaos powers. I seem to recall my stars being the plague marines, who were, at the time, single pose plastics. Good times.

3rd edition came with new miniatures for each of the 4 chaos powers, and the noise marines drew me in. After all, what's cooler than sonic weaponry? Answer: nothing. My Emperor's Children were basically an entirely new army, and as I was purchasing them I made sure to order plenty of extra sonic weapons. I still have some in a bag today, somewhere. These guys were horribly painted, but I loved them, and they served me well on the battlefield.

When the 4th edition codex arrived (well, late 4th, proto 5th), I reorganized them accordingly. The ability to upgrade most of your army to carry sonic weaponry was sadly gone, however so were the restrictions on mixing your gods. The Emperor's Children took this opportunity to strike a deal with a sorcerer of the Thousand Sons, and a few of the soulless warriors joined their ranks. My first trip to the doubles tournament provided the inspiration needed to repaint them. This is, quite predictably, a job still ongoing.

Recently, after a good few months of playing Iron Hands and Orks, I've gotten the urge for Chaos again. I took them out on the battlefield a few days ago, where they squared off against my brother's Salamanders. A draw, but considering my horrific reserve rolls left me with a good portion of my army entirely absent, clearly a moral victory! (what do you mean I always claim moral victories?) Anyway, the army is pretty good at what it does, nasty up close but with enough long range fire power that I don't need to struggle across the table to be effective. The chaos book is still very solid, even if I am ignoring a bunch of units because they don't really fit my theme (berzerkers, plague marines, defilers...actually that last one is more because I'm not a fan of the model). However, with the Blood Angel codex imminent, I've been doing a lot of thinking about switching over to the new list. Should I? Shouldn't I? If I do, I can play with things like the new drop ship, and dreads that wouldn't try and kill me, and land raiders that can hold more than 10 dudes. But I'd also lose stuff like my kickass lord, and sonic weapons, and my thousand sons squad. I've been flipping back and forth on the idea for a while, but there is one thing that draws me to the idea the most; the new BA codex just looks more fun. It might perform still, but the chaos book doesn't pack the tricks and options the newer books give you. I'll wait and try a few proxy games until I make my choice, of course, but the appeal of a fast-moving deep-striking out-flanking force is pretty strong. I've got some good ideas for "counts-as" death company, too.

Having looked briefly through the BA book, here's what I'm thinking of for my proposed core.

Sanguinary Priest with power weapon and jump pack;
joining a 10 man assault squad with 2 flamers and a power fist sgt,

2x 10 man tac squads in rhinos, with meltas and multi meltas, one with a fist and one with a sword

Vindicator

Las cannon Predator

This is, with a couple of exceptions, doable with minimum amounts of new miniatures needing to be scavenged/constructed/converted, and by my estimation comes out at around 1100 points, which should provide a solid core, but still have room to add some new toys. We'll see what happens.